today's news and of the week's top stories of piri rages on in northern. council's decision to remove the union flag from city hall for most of the year. the world community mourns the death of a prominent defender of internet freedom with his relatives in the u.s. . france. campaign to push out. from northern mali while additional support is confirmed from the united states britain and other european countries. yes we can't.

promise to close guantanamo bay prison continues to go on with the detention facility. with over one hundred sixty captives still being held without trial. certainly glad to have you with us now fierce clashes in belfast between loyalists and nationalists on saturday once again ended in the street battles leaving twenty nine policemen injured the outrage was sparked six weeks ago by belfast council's decision to reduce the number of days the union flag flies over city hall the latest violence broke out after about a thousand unionists marching on city hall were attacked by locals in a predominantly catholic area police fired water cannons and plastic bullets to

disperse the crowds. has been at the scene. breaking out. the crowd. becoming. helped by the many. political language it's. so what's the tension here on the straight. recreational rioting that well some people are calling it. you can see the plates at the back that lead just say the back roads of police responding with the worst economies on the surface and these protests have been about the flag but the scale and intensity of that has been that really this is about much much more than just that look he students the director of the east belfast mission group is working with young protest this to try to calm the tensions some kids are doing it for fun or doing it for more sinister motives in

terms of control terms of par in terms of ego some are doing it because it's sexier than the playstation you know young girls are doing it because girls even with young children we've seen on the streets who i don't think a fully realized what their actions can result in but they're just right there somewhere starving aloft and yet there's nothing funny about it what are the protesters here asking for just for one our flag back up on water and pays to get off their back ses peter robinson least you're not silly not them he was the one that had to start. the day forty thousand they flipped for us to come out on the street to protest against their land and nice said on his back save maybe take all the flak he's called was rubbish and skull mannering out you know but when he wanted also it on the streets for his election we can make for do you think the protestors would predict that any kind of compromise when it comes to this is the

plywood could bring the flag of it's the flag down and not said. we know we're not going to get a backup plan or an election because it's the law of majority rule. any unionist for this now holds to try to reengage politically but we're told much more will need to be done they'll be they. quick fix is good as you think there's any silver bullet i think there's so many different things need to happen economic. investment political investment community investment by and by all the stakeholders in these communities to try to resolve the wide draft of issues that are a blight here. but. this is a new generation putting on to the streets. it's a far cry. of the night it's come. that doesn't make it any less.

the relatives of internet activist and programmer aaron schwartz have said his death was a product of the failed u.s. justice system the twenty six year old co-founder of social news website reddit committed suicide facing decades in prison on hacking charges for allegedly stealing and publishing scientific documents online my colleague words to share i spoke to a representative of the pirate party from the berlin parliament fabio reinhardt who says the potential punishment for swartz was far too harsh but u.s. attorney's office pursued a spread of charges possibly leading to over thirty years in prison and a million dollar fine this alternately for downloading and redistributing mit academic papers do you think the punishment is justified no i definitely don't think this.

on the internet or in swat was putting fires on the internet that should have been on the internet. a long time ago and actually j.-star. where the fire came from and said they wanted to put the fire on the internet anyway and aaron swartz just did a perfectly good job doing it and he actually took a lot of effort from them which would have been there for i think the system of rock in this case whenever it comes to internet freedom whenever it comes to copyright infringement then other senators other people in the house of representatives in the united states on the same side there is no differences. there they are for same side as hollywood does they are actually fighting for hollywood and making the laws for them it's sometimes it's ridiculous what they what they are thinking what would be a good law they should always think what they are about the laws actually have an

effect on society is carrying a very heavy legacy that will be difficult to fill a footstep but there are a lot of people that fight for the same goals that were tried to go into what he was fighting for and i think there's a political movement that is fighting for a free internet it's the strongest now and with get stronger and there's no risk that this very heavy loss for the internet community will bring a stop to the political movement. and you can read the quotes from the original statement by aaron swartz relatives and partner on our website r.t.e. dot com. at least eleven civilians and over one hundred militants have been killed since the french intervention in mali began on friday government troops with the help of the french military have regained control of the key city of kona which had been captured by islamist rebels earlier this week jets and helicopters have now begun an aerial bombardment on the rebel held town meanwhile the campaign is

gaining support from the west as the united states britain and other european countries are offering logistics support political why the and it journalist lando believes that france will have to negotiate with. the country was really ready to come apart has. seemed to feel that perhaps it was i think the problem is that it's totally open ended. given no i probably don't know exactly what their what your tips are what it is they're in how long is this going to go on you're talking about a country just north of our morality which is twice the size of france. he's rebels these different groups who know he's there is how do you deal with with a few hundred troops or away. potentially a huge and a very long task in the end what they're going to want to do is i mean to negotiate with these people that's the only way i think it's going to come to an end. if you

fell a lot of. mercenaries who had been paid to fight for him and who had a lot of arms took off and came south and some of them originally from northern mali decided it was now time to establish their claim which they wanted to do for a long time. having their own homeland in northern mali these were the twice rivers they were joined by radical more radical islamic groups and. now being tossed out and it's really the radical islamic groups that run things but i don't think anyone really knows what's going on there. earlier a failed mission to rescue a hostage in southern somalia left two french soldiers the hostage and seventeen militants dead the raid in the area began hours after french troops intervened in mali tell government troops of battle rebels there are currently nine french nationals are being held hostage across north america north africa rather excuse me

. a fresh round of diplomatic efforts aimed at resolving the crisis in syria has been held this week in moscow the u.n. and arab league peace envoy to syria reiterated that there can be no military solution to the conflict and moscow has urged the opposition to probe pose its own peace plan stressing that assad's removal cannot be a precondition for peace talks. we are united in our view that the crisis is becoming increasingly menacing not only for syria but for the region as a whole in this situation the only ones that benefit other radicals and the stream is connected to terror groups like al qaida were convinced the solution lies in following the geneva agreements without any preconditions because preconditions will make it impossible to start a dialogue it's necessary to force all sides including the opposition that's now refusing the talks to come to the negotiating table while on the ground rebels have

invaded the largest military airbase in the north while syrian military warplanes have bombed to damascus suburbs forcing the opposition out of the strategic area earlier western experts stated that the syrian government might be storing up to fifty tons of raw uranium enough to build five nuclear bombs the fears are mounting that the arsenal could fall into the wrong hands however a political analyst says that the west isn't drawing a full picture of the conflict. there's a lot of noise about it there was a bombing in two thousand and seven the israeli jets bombed the site in syria claiming that it is a nuclear site there was no indication yes the i.a.e.a. visited the site the i.a.e.a. said that there were traces of your a norm of depleted uranium but they did not confirm that there was any quantity or at least you know this huge quantity that is being publicized i mean they're saying fifty tons of uranium this is this is i don't know where they come up with a number. i did some research and it appears that they came up with a number because they they feel they are coming up with the story that this site

that was there that was bombed in two thousand and seven would actually require fifty tons that doesn't mean that the syrians actually have fifty tons and that doesn't mean that the site is actually for a nuclear program the syrian central government was able to control more than past six months there is an advance of the syrian army and the syrian official police and they are controlling most of the country there are only some areas in the countryside where rebel fighters are in some areas in the countryside where the syrian army withdrew from these areas because they thought that these areas were not important strategically but overall the syrian central government under the leadership of president assad controls most of the syrian territory obviously it's difficult because there are many fighters infiltrating from outside syria there are many a lot of money being infiltrated being pumped into syria to these rebel groups by neighboring country especially by by turkey by qatar by other european and by

the united states there is a sponsorship of these terror groups. and later in the hour a dark anniversary for the. bakers and we have an eyewitness account of what's been happening behind the prison walls brought the bombing continues to prolong closing the facility this story and much much more shortly after a break. and

live from studio this is our team but they have you back america's most famous or most infamous prison camp has marked its eleventh anniversary this week with over one hundred sixty captives still being held there without charge or trial and barack obama has been promising to close the facility since his it two thousand and eight presidential campaign but has since failed to stand up to his word what's more calls to stop indefinite detention have largely died down in the u.s. where even torture is reportedly gaining acceptability as gannett you can comments

. president obama's call to look forward not backward has resulted in attempts to sweep the past under the rug including some of his own promises i'm going to close guantanamo and i will follow through on that colonel morris davis was a chief prosecutor at guantanamo under george w. bush he later became a vocal critic of the practices there and strongly supported president obama's pledge to shut down the prison he says the perception of guantanamo in the u.s. has come a long way since two thousand and eight when he was a burning and highly controversial issue with the nation demanding action he gets a free pass on i mean the public largely could care less the mainstream media and here in the u.s. . you know is more interested in car dash and then they are and what happens at guantanamo. so who's going to challenge it if we're looking for the biggest threat

to america right now she's right there her name is kim carr does she and her america has moved on and so has its perception of torture polls by the american red cross show the majority of americans now find torture acceptable sixty percent of young people agree whereas four years ago torture was largely condemned in the u.s. . hollywood has arguably contributed to that evolution of public opinion in the movie zero dark thirty day. or trade the information that led to the capture. and killing of bin laden was obtained through enhanced interrogation techniques or torture and in fact that's simply not true the actual information was obtained through a report based interrogation techniques the government classified everything related to its torture practices which allows politicians pundits and filmmakers the freedom to press for all kinds of myths although a slew of washington insiders including the senate intelligence committee point out

how torture has proved to be ineffective but in america it's often fiction not facts that make history this is more important than reality this is the movies where americans learn their history and today the history in the making is the drone strikes this amounts to the administration executing people without due process often in absolute secrecy in foreign lands with a remote control but it will obama's drones generate as much of a backlash as guantanamo did for george w. bush and we've now got have a generation that only knows the post nine eleven era. where things like guantanamo and the warrantless wiretapping that's all they've ever known you know for decades now and i think it has become an accepted part of life unfortunately judging by how the guantanamo controversy evolved here is what may transpire with regard to drone the urgency of the issue will subside in the u.s.

because there will be no american for dying there will be no strong public movement to oppose the program there may even be a movie or two outing that the logical keep the withdrawal and once the controversy dies down it will become the new normal and americans will move on. in washington unbeneficial. earlier my colleague kevin o'connor spoke with murat kurnaz a former prisoner at guantanamo who was serving a sentence for what turned out to be groundless accusations he was released after the u.s. military failed to get him to confess to crimes he never committed but he says some others were not so lucky if you are not a terrorist they will like to try to make you are terrorists i should example i must say if i should agree that i am be a member of. that i did fight with probably want together against american soldiers between the war. and i should i should sign papers that i am be

a member of al qaeda what were the charges first. there was no or no reason for just the. pakistani people they sold me for bounty of through some dollar to the americans they said this man he's a terrorist and very soon few months later they found out that i'm innocent and they want me. that i'm going to sign papers they forced me to sign papers that i should agree that i'm be a member of al qaeda because because they didn't have anything against me in their hands and you're saying force you have they force you say what were they doing to shoot to do that. they used torture techniques like waterboarding and electroshocks they sought after this i'm going to sign and agree that i'm being a member of al qaeda and every time i refused to sign they tried another kind of torture they saw i was one time can you tell us the worst

thing one of a better word that you saw going on there. example i saw. i had naples they used to be just nine or if you are sort childs and. i think it was the worst i saw over there. there was not treating better than us i didn't saw that they getting tortured but. to see children in the same camp it was bad enough for me and also i saw people they got killed on the torture the bigger push but until they got to. i mean i have seen many things during this five years. many bad thinks this is just a couple of those how do you feel after what you've been through in guantanamo through no fault of your own how does it make you feel as a human being. of course nobody can be happy after after all this happened but. i myself am trying to support human rights

organizations to fight against torture around the world not just going to normal. around the world exists more than more than twenty one secret prisons where people getting tortured and guantanamo is just one of course. and of course as always we have more stories for you on our website including a new collection of clothes designed to hide of the wearer from drones and other means of detection it is scheduled to be unveiled in london soon dot com to read how man could do put a big brother's sign. letters belonging to scottish poet robert burns have been discovered by a pirate researcher more than two hundred years since the beloved bards death the full story on our website. thousands have marched in moscow protesting against a law banning u.s. citizens from adopting russian children the march was organized by russian

opposition activists our correspondent you've got a piece going off without the. the protesters are demanding that the e.u. the authorities abolish the law passed recently which bans americans from adopting russian children now this button is part of the russian lawmakers response to the lebanese gay activists recently in the united states which gives the green light for sanctioning russian officials suspected there in the state of while eating human rights are the reason why russian lawmakers chose two ballot mannequins from adopting russian children is due to the meaning pieces of lobby usually sometimes even deaths of russian kids after they were adopted and brought to the united states in fact the whole issue adoption has been quite a problem between russia and the united states for several years now and officials in moscow say it's not only the cases of abuse themselves but also the lack of

a proper legal reaction from american authorities including the lack of heavy jail sentences which could have prevented these cases from happening again so authorities say that banning americans from adopting russian kids is actually aimed at protecting them and it's fair to say that they do have quite a large number of supporters in society in russia just recently about why the russian girl in her blog online wrote a personal letter to president putin we signed the bill in the end asking him to change his mind to abolish this law that she explained it by saying that in many cases the orphans which are being adopted by americans and many foreigners want americans in this case they are disabled and they are simply not able to receive the proper medical attention here in russia and we both already heard from the president's press secretary to be a sponsor who said that. will review this blog post even though it's not an

official request but also right before the end of last year one of the russians newspapers managed to gather around one hundred thousand signatures now protesting the slaughter and under the deal could be off the president the parliament also has to review this protest is also needed to point out back to due to the current agreement between moscow and washington on adoption all those people who have already been able to find the children who are going to be adopted and brought to the united states they're going to be able to finalize the process so these kids who are already sort of approved to be adopted the will be able to go to the united states all the way until two thousand and fourteen. on to some more world news in brief for you this hour hundreds of thousands of people have flocked to paris from all over france to protest against same sex marriage and adoption by gay couples three large rallies were held before the crowds marched through the streets to meet

in the center of the capital president francois hollande project dubbed marriage for everyone has faced criticism ever since he was elected last year. over one hundred thousand opposition supporters took to the streets of taipei to protest against taiwan's pro china president demonstrators have also urged the country's prime minister to step down over the country stagnating economy the opposition claims the president china oriented policies are gradually eroding the island's independence from beijing. six men have been arrested and one declared wanted it after allegedly committing a gang rape in the northern indiana state of punjab the twenty nine year old victim is believed to have been traveling alone on a bus when the driver took her to a desolate location and called friends incident occurred just weeks after a gang rape in new delhi which provoked massive protests around the country. seven civilians have been killed after an explosion hit

a village in eastern afghanistan where the blast occurred as the villagers were trying to pull out the dead from a collapsed mosque destroyed during overnight fighting between nato troops and the taliban they say a suicide vest on one of the dead insurgents might have caused the explosion. germany's finance minister wolfgang schauble is set to meet greece's top bailout politician alexis. the leader of the leftist syriza party the meeting is seen as a chance to convene or sorry convince rather the strong critic of that he needs to back harsh austerity measures imposed on athens yanis varoufakis a political economist and author says germany wants to establish dialogue with the greek opposition as they could win the next election. when mr alarm was in opposition france mrs merkel if you talk to him and then find it much harder to establish the working relationship with him once he became president of the french republic similarly mrs the person may well be in government after the next election

in the future in greece so germany needs to have a mode of communicating and not in order to be either to convince me to go but mr cooper's to convince me so bullish about that i wrong player thinking but it has to be some kind of goodwill communication. coming up archie heads to northwest russia for a fascinating trip to the shores of the white sea. a mission of free accreditation free press for charges free from arrangement

free risk free. to tide free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects and free video don to r.t. dot com. join me on a journey to the heart of the kremlin to places him from the tourist he's going to meet some real kremlin insiders although they may not be the usual news makers you see on t.v. . look . at it.

the white sea its surface remains choked with ice when at least seven months a year. the chilly breath of the arctic ocean keeps the water freezing cold. near the coast however the high winds and bitter cold recede. that even in winter also can be seen through holes in the ice. squeals and cracking sounds can often be heard around the.